Today's Tech: Obama discusses US spying with Apple and Google and users complain about multiple issues with new Nexus 7 tablet

A Fox Business News report suggests that Apple's board is getting skittish about a long lull in new product releases and may even be putting "pressure" on the company's CEO to produce a game changer of the sort his predecessor was famous for. "What have they had lately? They have the iPad, they've had a few other things, but they don't have anything innovating from what came from Steve Jobs. And that concern is basically manifesting into pressure on Tim Cook to basically innovate, to do something fast," Fox Business News correspondent Charlie Gasparino said. He said his information about "concern at the board level" at Apple came from sources inside the company. He noted that while the board of directors "is now worried about what they have in the pipeline" and concerned about the company's stock price dipping 35 per cent from its all-time high, there's no indication that Cook's job is in jeopardy. In public appearances, Cook has said that Apple has plenty of great technology cooking in its product pipeline. There's been speculation that Cupertino plans to unveil a smart watch or some other form of wearable tech as its next big market-defining product a la the Jobs roadmap, and Apple hasn't done much to quash those rumours.

Owners of the new Google Nexus 7 tablet have reported a number of issues with the device, including erratic touch screen and keyboard functionality and the GPS not working properly. One user said that the problems with the touchscreen on his device is "almost to the point where it is unusable." Writing on the Google Product Forums, Jason L, added that although the device functioned fine at first, with only the occasional double tap registering on the keyboard, the problem got progressively worse. Now it is also registering ghost taps no where near the actual touch point he said. Another user said that he was now on his third device, and had experienced the same touchscreen problem with all of them. Many users have installed the Yet Another MultiTouch Test app which test the accuracy of touchscreen devices by visually tracking what is being registered. There are numerous reports of the register jumping all over the place, the screen thinking there are two fingers when there is just one, and random ghost touches. Complaints about the keyboard and touchscreen on the Google forum now run to 12 pages. For more on the additional reported issues, follow the link above.

Barack Obama has hosted a private meeting attended by a number of tech and telecoms chiefs to discuss US government surveillance, sources have told the Politico blog. Amongst those present were Apple CEO Tim Cook and Google vice president and computer scientist Vint Cerf. The meeting was held last Thursday and was attended by Obama in person, the sources said. US tech and telecoms firms are greatly concerned about the damage recent revelations about NSA snooping on customer's private information could have on their reputation and commercial interests, particularly abroad. The meeting appears to be part of a wider move by the US government to engage with American tech firms and allow a public debate, although Obama has been keen to keep meetings with industry off the record and behind closed doors.

One in five children in the UK who use social media have been a victim of cyberbullying, with 10 per cent suffering daily abuse, a survey by children's charity the NSPCC has found. The abuse is not limited to playground bullying. Children also reported threats of serious physical violence including rape, as well as stalking, racism and encouragement of self-harm. The charity has called for a new strategy to tackle the problem "before it gets out of hand". The research was carried out through talking to 1,024 11 to 16-year-olds from across the UK and is part of a wider report which will be published in November. Claire Lilley, the NSPCC's safer technology expert, said, "We are particularly worried about the impact of these risks on younger children, and this is what our forthcoming report will focus on. We must ensure young people have the confidence to speak out against this abuse, so that they don't feel isolated and without anywhere to turn."